Rich colourful and multi-layered Carl Vine’s Symphony No.7 (2008) is subtitled ‘scenes from daily life’. The first two ‘scenes’ mirror the same idea from opposite sides: the first allowing competing energies to collide into uniformity the second moving from unison to plurality. The third and fifth are slow meditations on loss and beauty separated by a contrasting scene of skittish energy. The 24-minute works ends with an unnerving danse macabre.

Commissioned by Musica Reginae. Premiered February 20 2010 with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. This edition includes score and parts for piano trio soli.

Born in Havana Cuba in 1895 Ernesto Lecuona is arguably Cuba's greatest serious composer. He was a gifted pianist who wrote hundreds of songs and piano works before he died in 1963. Most of his music is composed in a rich authentic Cuban style. The most famous of his works is Malagueña the sixth movement of his Suite Andalucia for solo piano which was first published in 1928. Malagueña has been recorded as a popular song (with added lyrics) as a serious piano work (even by Lecuona himself in the 1950's) and also as a jazz standard (Bill Holman's arrangement for the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the early 1960's.) Over the years it has been arranged many times for variousother mediums ranging from symphony orchestra to field arrangements for drum and bugle corps.In 1976 James Barnes arranged Malagueña for the University of Kansas Marching Band. A few years later with permission from the publisher he expanded this original arrangement into a full work for symphonic band called Prelude Fantasy and Fandango on Lecuona's Malagueña. After several performances in the spring of 1978 (most notably at the MENC Convention in Colorado Springs) this work along with over 200 other Barnes manuscripts lay fallow in the KU Band Library. While packing up his office belongings when he retired from The University of Kansas in 2015 Barnes came across this long languishing Prelude Fantasy and Fandango which remained in condensed score. In the fall of 2016 he completely re-composed the opening portion of the work reduced the number of required percussion and disposed of the two harps in his 1978 version. This new setting features evocative thinly scored extended solo passages for clarinet bassoon and flute before the full wind band concludes the work with a powerful dramatic setting of the main themes of Lecuona's masterful Malagueña.

Aram Iljitsj Khatchaturian de nationalité arménienne naît en 1903 à Tiflis dans une famille pauvre de relieurs. Il débute sa formation musicale en 1922 à la Gnessin Music School de Moscou avec Mikhail Gnessis comme professeur de composition. Il achève ses études au Conservatoire de Moscou o? il suit les cours de Nikolai Miaskovsky célèbre compositeur et pédagogue soviétique. Khatchaturian composera entre autres deux symphonies trois concertos (pour piano pour violon et pour violoncelle) les musiques de trois ballets (Happiness Gayane Spartacus) ainsi que de nombreuses uvres de musique de chambre instrumentale et vocale. En 1959 sa dernière composition - le balletSpartacus - remporte le Prix Lénine la plus haute distinction de lépoque. Le livret de N. Volkov pour le ballet Spartacus est basé sur des faits historiques réels : la grande révolte des esclaves à Rome en 74-71 av. J.-C. dont Spartacus était le chef. Malgré ce fondement historique Spartacus est toujours resté dactualité. Khatchaturian écrit dailleurs : Je pense quà bien des égards la personnalité héro?que de Spartacus se retrouve dans la lutte que mènent aujourdhui les peuples opprimés pour leurs droits. Spartacus comprend trois suites. Chacune est une composition autonome complète et possédant sa propre structure logique et son propre développement.

This remarkable and descriptive work opens and closes with members of the ensemble whispering to one another creating a soft yet chaotic effect. The simple poem is by the composer: ?Whispers move in colored flight seekingsigns of nexttwilight purple as the violets grow warm but rich for all to know.? As the piece progresses introduced by a solo piano the listener is taken through a dynamic range of emotional tension and release beforethe quiet mood returns to close outthis uniquely effective composition. Dur: 5:15Recorded by the Marshall University Wind Symphony ? Steve Barnett conductor

Karsten Fundal's Entropia for Large Orchestra Soprano and Baritone soli Large Choir and Chamber Choir (SATB) and prerecorded sound (1997-2001). Commissioned by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir / DR. Parts are available on hire: hire@ewh.dk About Entropia: This orchestral work is chiefly an attempt to make a musical investigation into the complex question of the nature of time. The viewpoint taken on a philosophical level is chiefly inspired by the brilliant thinker and philosopher of time J.F. Fraser. The main conclusion of his investigation of the subject is in very short that the onlyadequate view to take of time as a phenomenon with all the knowledge that we have today is that time must be seen as a conflict or at least an interference between many different “temporal levels” (...) Karsten Fundal